喜樂美語
  1. 1驚人的、大得驚人

    Prodigious means so large, so much, or so good that it surprises you. A prodigious appetite is not just “hungry”; it is an amount that makes people stare. A prodigious talent is not merely strong; it feels almost too big for an ordinary life. The word is a little literary — you find it in books and careful speech more than in chat — and it almost always praises size or power, with a breath of wonder. Though actually, it first grew from an old word for a sign or , so older writing can use it for something strange or , not only “very big.” Today, for , the safe modern sense is “amazingly great.”

組成From Latin prōdigium (a sign, omen, or wonder) plus -ous (“full of”). So it first meant “like a wonder,” and from there “amazingly great.”

同家族的字

  • prodigyfrom the same Latin prōdigium, “omen / wonder”
  • prodigiouslythe adverb, prodigious + -ly

原始詞典資料6 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

prodigiousadj/pɹəˈdɪd͡ʒəs/

  • 1

    Extraordinarily amazing.

    • VVhat am I? Old! or a Monſter! Is it ſo prodigious, that a Man ſhou'd like me?
    • Prodigious! […] VVhat in the Name of VVonder hath brought you to England?
  • 2

    Extraordinarily amazing.

    • Iohn Ponce aforeſaid [i.e., Juan Ponce de León] hearing a rumour of a prodigious vvell, vvhich (as the Poets tell of Medea) vvould make olde men become young againe, plaid the yongling to goe ſearch it ſix monethes together, and in that inquirie diſcouers this Continent: […]
    • […] Lafayette Square itself, contiguous to the Executive Mansion, could create a rich sense of the past by the use of scarce other witchcraft than its command of that pleasant perspective and its possession of the most prodigious of all Presidential effigies, Andrew Jackson, as archaic as a Ninevite king, prancing and rocking through the ages.
  • 3

    Extraordinarily amazing.

    • [H]e [Thomas Arundell] by his euill counſaile and prodigious ſuggeſtions, craftilye circumuented the king, inducyng him to graunt his letters of pardon to a great traytour the Erle of Arondell his brother [Richard Fitzalan, 4th Earl of Arundel].
    • Cleanthes alleadged foure cauſes, which might induce man to acknowledge a God, […] the thirde by the terror that the minde of man is ſtroken into, by […] the prodigious ſhapes and vnnaturall formes of men, of beaſtes, of birdes, of fiſhes, of all creatures, […]
  • 4

    Very big in extent, quantity, or size; abundant; intense; colossal, huge.

    • [T]he figges […] are a fruit for a king, anſvverable to the mightie, huge, and prodigious tree that beareth it.
    • This Urſula is ſaid to have carried over out of Britain, eleven thouſand Maids of prime quality, beſides threeſcore thouſand of meaner rank, (ſeventy one thouſand in all, a prodigious number,) to be married to ſo many in little Britain in France. Prepoſterous in my mind, to proffer themſelves, and it had argued more modeſty if their Husbands had fetcht them hence.
  • 5

    archaicobsoleteHaving the nature of an omen or portent; ominous, portentous.

    • [T]he blots of natures hand / Shall not in their iſſue ſtand. / Neuer mole, hare-lippe, nor ſcarre, / Nor marke prodigious, ſuch as are / Deſpiſed in natiuitie, / Shall vpon their children be.
    • [T]here happened a prodigious token to Denis tyrant of Sicilie [i.e., Dionysius I of Syracuse], vvhen hee vvas expelled and depoſed from that mightie ſtate of his, and this it vvas; The ſea vvater vvithin one day in the haven grevv to be freſh and ſvveet.

prodigiousadv/pɹəˈdɪd͡ʒəs/

  • 1

    archaicSynonym of prodigiously (“in a prodigious manner”).

    • I have fewer books than leisure to read them, and I have a prodigious big appetite.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。